It was quite a quiet day aboard the Thousand Sunny, Nami thought, flicking another page of her newspaper over.
Not much was going on in the world, the same models were the same models, the same government still censored half of the written works…
Unfortunately, peace and quiet didn't last long on this kind of a ship and within a few seconds, "Nami!"
"What?" She asked, hoping that it was a good reason, not just that he was-
"How far away is the next island?" She stared, sometimes Luffy asked about how far they were from land but that was far and in between, when the days stretched into weeks.
"I think it's about a week away at the latest." She says, giving a cursory glance to her log-pose, the weather around an island tended to become a hell of a lot worse and then beautiful.
For weeks, stormy weather had persisted, and as such, when the clouds had seemingly disappeared out of nowhere, the crew had relaxed.
"Okay!" He chirped happily and bounded away.
She sighed but did not persist, her captain was such an odd-ball sometimes.
Although… she had an inkling of what kind of an anniversary was coming up, when on Cocoyashi, on the anniversary of Belle-mère's death, she had made chicken roast soaked in mikan juice and stayed at her mother's grave with Nojiko for the entire night.
And if she was right, they were coming up on the week of hell when they were separated at the Sabaody Archipelago, thus meaning… his death.
She didn't know why, but it felt like it would taboo to utter his name, even in the solitude of her own mind.
So she flicked another page over and resolutely tried to ignore the itch to be scratched.
Even as she heard Franky start crying over something super.
Franky was working on something super when Luffy-bro barged in.
The little machine fell off the bench and broke into a million little pieces.
He glances forlornly at his destroyed work and turns to glare at his captain. "Dammit Luffy! Can't you be careful sometimes?"
"Oops?" He offers and Franky sighs.
"What do you want?"
"When we get to the next island can you make a memorial?" And damn, if Franky isn't confused, he's a regular human.
"A memorial?" He asks dumbfounded.
"Mm, I realised that we didn't make anything for him." Luffy says, like that clears everything up.
Franky doesn't ask Luffy to elaborate any further, if he doesn't want to say who this memorial is for, then he doesn't have to.
"Do you have anything in mind for it?"
"Something natural, free."
"Hmm, I'll have to talk with Usopp." Franky mutters, already thinking of all the variations to a 'free tombstone'.
He watches idly as Luffy leaves his room, still grinning like a loon, truly, the question is, who is the tombstone for?
"Ne Usopp!" Luffy cries, flinging himself down to the grassy deck of the Thousand Sunny.
Aforementioned sniper glances up from his arsenal where he is carefully counting each of his pop-greens. Just one look and he watches in mild terror as the human projectile hurtles towards him.
Dodging out of the way, he watches as Luffy, collides into the pop greens and exploded into a mess of plants, he blinked and Luffy lithely dodged out of the way and landed on his two feet.
Huh, that was weird, but then again, sometimes he would be training with Hercules-sensei and was able to dodge projectiles and the plants before they could touch him.
"Don't be so reckless." He admonishes, gathering his pop greens and shoving them into his satchel, there was no point in trying to get work done when his captain was with him, "What do you want?"
"Did you help Franky with the memorial back on Thriller Bark?" Luffy asks, bouncing on the heels of his feet.
Usopp frowns, "A bit, why?"
"When we get to the next island I want to make one," He says, grinning as much as always despite the grim weight of his words.
Usopp recoils a bit but recovers, he knows that Zoro was listening into their conversation despite his relaxed position, Usopp could tell he was as tightly coiled as a spring and ready to pounce.
"Okay, but why wouldn't you go to Franky first?"
"I did, but he wants your help on it anyway." Luffy says, like that solves all the world's mysteries and flops onto the grassy deck, arms pillowed behind his head to support himself.
Sighing, Usopp follows suit and lays next to his captain.
"It's for somebody special." Luffy elaborates, breathing in deeply.
"Mm, that might be a good idea…" He murmurs softly, sure there had been a funeral, one of which the entire village had attended, but there hadn't been anybody important, important to him at least. Sure, he hadn't been alone but he didn't have family.
Not like these guys at least.
"Oh! Zoro!" And suddenly Luffy leaps up from his spot beside Usopp and all but flies to the 'sleeping' swordsman.
Without batting an eyelash Zoro leans to one side, allowing the rubber-man to slam into the wall, rather than his sleeping body.
"Keep it down out there!" Sanji yells, sticking his head out the kitchen door, when he sees that it's only Zoro and Luffy, he says dismissively, "Oh, it's only moss-head," and returns to the kitchen.
"What?"
"Do you have sake?" Luffy asks.
"Sake? I thought you didn't like alcohol."
He shakes his head and Zoro replies, "Okay, I don't actually have any, love-cook has it."
"Mm, do you reckon he'll give it to me at the island?" He asks, clearly having thought about it.
"Yeah, if you ask politely enough." Giving the swordsman a hug who merely squeezes him back, Luffy bounds into the kitchen.
Sanji is cooking Red Emperor fish in Pouilly-Fuissé with lemons and chili marinading on top, it'll be gone in seconds, but hey, it's the thought that counts.
Luffy barges into his kitchen and dammit, he was this close to getting it into their oven.
"What do you want shitty gomu?" Sanji asks, putting the fish safely in the oven.
"Do we have sakazuki cups?" He asks, eyeing the fish.
"Yeah, I think so, why?" Sanji asks, he might be used to the whims of his captain, but the man will never cease to surprise him.
"I need three when we get to the island."
"Three?"
"Yup, are they red?"
Sanji sighs and looks into their cabinets, placed up the back behind a few other unused cups, lo and behold, a set of ten, red sakazuki cups.
"Yeah, we got red ones, you wanna tell me what this is for?"
Luffy goes quiet for a couple of seconds and Sanji has to make sure he isn't thieving his food. Instead, there is a slightly blank look on his features, it looks so unnatural that he has to double take.
"Luffy?" It's said softly, but seems to knock the man out of his… moment.
"Mn, it's for a memorial."
"Okay."
He doesn't ask silly questions like, who is it for, he doesn't need to. It's Luffy's choice.
Later on when everyone is asleep, Luffy sits on Sunny's figurehead and wonders, where did his bond go so wrong?
Why did they both have to die?
The nights are the worst when he looks up at the blankets of stars shining down on him, how dare they have the gall to shine when he is still grieving the bond he misses so much.
He thinks that it's lucky that they're this close to an island, he hadn't thought about it until one day when he'd been staring out at the sea, and it struck him that, he almost forgot Sabo.
Not forget, but, his death-day.
He always sent off a quick prayer to Sabo, whether his older brother received them remained to be seen.
The island they reach is fairly nondescript and immediately he flies off the ship, money safely secured in his pouch.
He carefully makes his way through the bustling streets and finally finds a store displaying weaponry.
Luffy slips inside, mindful of the over-filling store. He approaches the harried store-clerk who directs him to another rack full of staffs, and collapsible pipes, it's all so cool!
Finally making his selection he decides that given the amount of people cramped inside, nobody will miss the weapon, not for a while at least.
"Oi! Luffy-bro!" Franky is easy to pick out given the sheer size of him, the aura that glowed cyan blue was an added measure.
"Franky!" He grins, noticing Usopp trailing after him.
"Do you have anywhere you want to do this?" They ask.
"Yeah," It had taken a while, but he staked out a cliff overlooking the sea, it was perfect.
"Lead the way."
And it takes a while, but eventually they spill out of the dense forest and onto the jutting piece of land.
"Here?" Luffy can tell that the cyborg is already making calculations. "And do you want this as permanent?"
"Nah, Ace and Sabo always wanted to be free." He says, barely noticing the way Usopp and Franky freeze.
"A-alrighty Luffy-bro, we'll make you the most super~ memorial ever!" And then the two are lost in a world of their own so Luffy sits on the edge looking out to the birds that fly freely, unburdened by their problems.
Eventually the rest of the crew arrive, spreading themselves around the clearing, Nami assures them that Sunny is in good hands.
It takes a few hours but finally, Franky and Usopp are finished. Initially, he isn't too sure what he's looking at, only that there are a lot of flowers with their flag placed neatly over the top.
"So, when you light it up, the whole thing will shoot over the ocean until it eventually is burnt to ashes, that way, it will be eternal. Sorry Luffy-bro if it's not su-"
Luffy cuts him off with a large hug to the middle, "Thank you for doing this on such late notice."
"No problem. Ne, Zoro, Sanji, did you bring them?"
Wordlessly, the sakazuki cups and sake are pressed into his hands, carefully, he arranges the cups atop the memorial and pours them, he spills some but that's okay.
He grabs his own cup and lifts it to the sky, maybe, maybe they can see him. "To brothers!"
Gagging a little on the disgusting taste of the alcohol, he turns to his crew, his ever-loving, eternal crew.
He knows they don't expect him to tell them about the ever-elusive Sabo, even Ace who only five members know personally.
"When I was a kid Jiji decided that I was going to learn social skills and become a marine by hanging around with bandits."
They share private smiles.
"I met Ace and Sabo there, Ace hated me at first, he tried to kill me a lot but eventually I caught up with him in the Grey Terminal."
"Grey Terminal?"
"Yeah, it's a gross place where the nobles of Goa dump all their rubbish." He takes in a deep breath, "Ace stole some of Dadan's sake and told us that if we share sakazuki cups, we're brothers. We planned that we would set sail together, but we couldn't decide who would be captain.
"Sabo was a noble but he hated them! He just wanted to be free…. His Dad came and took him away and soon the Tenryūbito came and the Grey Terminal was burned down because it was 'unsightly'. Sabo tried to set sail by his own when the noble appeared in the Goa Kingdom port… the Tenryūbito shot down his little boat because of existing. And nobody even helped!"
He wants to punch something, but eventually calms down, surrounded by his nakama, they are not judging him at all.
It's Zoro who makes the first move and take a swig of the sake bottle, "Good sake." He comments and passes it to Robin.
And so it goes, each taking a sip of the liquid, eventually it ends up at him, he glances at the label and pours it onto the memorial, he never really processed their deaths, with Sabo, he still had Ace, and Ace, he had to train to become stronger and stronger and stronger and strong-
"Luffy-kun." And Robin hands him a set of matches.
He strikes it and lets it fall onto the neatly arranged flowers, it shoots out to sea in a trail of sparks and begins to deteriorate into ashes.
"I'm still mad that you both died." He says, looking up at the blue sky. "But I still have nakama. Dammit I miss you both, and I doubt that will ever change, but maybe, you'll wait for me?"
And if the wind whispers in his hair, he smiles.
It was oddly cathartic to watch their flag burn and succumb to the warm wind.
He knows that he is never alone.
It's literal garbage but i hope you enjoy. ALSO FUCKING RICK AND MORTY. GODAMMIT, THE PRESIDENT OF THE CITADEL.
Okay, anyway, in regard to this fic, it was a thing i came up with a while back and only just capitalised on it.
Oh yeah, and the title is based off an ad about boats